


Names.

by sleepybook_wyrm



Series: Dream loses a brother but then finds several [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream and Toby Smith | Tubbo are Siblings, Gen, Lore - Freeform, Nicknames, Older Sibling Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sad, Sad Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), i guess??, i just like making myself cry, i swear i am making that a tag, idek, just sad, they're brothers fight me your honor, why do i do write these things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepybook_wyrm/pseuds/sleepybook_wyrm
Summary: Names.Names are special.Dream cherished them.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo
Series: Dream loses a brother but then finds several [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080209
Comments: 8
Kudos: 169





	Names.

Names.

Names are special. They've always held a certain amount of power.

Typically, a person would have two names.

The name their parents (or close relative or guardian or whoever) gave them at their birth.

And their second name: the name they chose for themselves.

It only made sense for things to work that way.

A baby couldn't possibly know what it wanted to be called, couldn't choose a name for itself when it couldn't even talk.

So, a person's first name, their private name, the one that only them, their parents, and possibly siblings would ever know, would be the one chosen for them. That name held more power—not in a literal sense, but more in an emotional one—and it was most often kept a secret.

It wasn't polite to prod someone for their private name, and it certainly wasn't polite to learn that name and use it without permission.

Only a close, selected few— _family_ —knew the private name.

The second was the chosen name. The name that the child settled on, the one that connected with them and made them feel complete. That name was just as special, but was freely used and freely offered. It was the name they were referred to as, and it could be chosen when they were three or chosen when they were thirty.

There was no time limit on finding one's chosen name.

But, it was also true that most children found their name by the age of eighteen, typically sometime in the first decade or so.

Like Bo. Bo had chosen Tubbo when he was barely two and only just learning to talk. He had babbled his own name, adding his own syllables to it in the adorable way of toddlers, but then hadn't dropped it.

He repeated it, over and over again, day after day, almost as if he was correcting everyone for saying the wrong thing—the wrong name—when they spoke to him.

Apparently, he'd grown attached to Tubbo, and it became very clear the attachment was permanent.

With wide smiles, their parents started to call the tiny child Tubbo and Dream had followed along, to a certain extent, until the day he'd accidentally called him Bo.

After that, Bo would throw a fit if Dream called him Tubbo, and Tubbo would wail if anyone else other than Dream called him Bo.

Tubbo always had made his own rules, and Dream supposed, fondly, that if anyone were to decide they had three names instead of two, it would be his little brother.

Dream, however…

Dream hadn't found his name for a long time.

Nothing he could think of sounded right, not when he was fine with the name he was given, happy with it, even. He saw no need for another, so he waited for it to come. If it ever did.

Whereas Tubbo had speedran finding his second name, Dream, for once, had meandered. Drifted from one to the next, uncertain and lost.

He didn't find his name until Tubbo was three, and Dream himself was eight.

It was a stunning realization back then. Finding his name. A visceral experience because, before, he'd never needed it.

Then, it was all he could cling to.

Dream.

When Tubbo was three and Dream was eight, it was them and only them.

It was only them, and the only times Tubbo would smile brightly without pain or fear or worry were the quiet moments when he looked up at his older brother, asking to be held, and when he was wrapped hazily in the peaceful confines of sleep, not a nightmare in sight. After the older had connected the two, linked them both back to Bo's sunny smile, there hadn't been a choice, not really.

Tubbo had given him that.

Tubbo named him.

And the newly dubbed Dream couldn't refuse it.

He liked being what made his little brother smile. Hoped he could continue being that.

Two years later—amidst snow and ice and roads—it ended.

( ~~ _why did you leave_~~ )

In the absence of something vital within his chest, he clung to his name tighter than ever.

It was all he had left.

The memories stayed.

And, somehow, they ached.

**Author's Note:**

> Aka me making excuses to not use their real names ever unless it’s necessary for a flashback or something lol  
> Also, still only writing about the characters!  
> Figured I might as well repeat that ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> (you have no idea how tempted I was to use BunnyGlitterGirl lol)


End file.
